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New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez says she supports removing elected officials – including the state governor – from a council overseeing the investment of $21 billion in state funds amid concerns about political donations from investment firms hired by the state.

Martinez announced her support Tuesday for changes to the composition of the New Mexico State Investment Council that would remove any appearance of impropriety when it comes to campaign or political donations from private firms that are paid to invest state money.

Martinez previously vetoed a bill that would have removed her from the investment council while keeping two other elected officials in place – the state treasurer and land commissioner.

State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn disagreed with the governor, saying he and Martinez's disagreements stem from their backgrounds.

The Department of Energy has given the company that manages and operates Los Alamos National Laboratory a six-month extension on its legacy cleanup bridge contract, the department announced Tuesday.

The cleanup contract extension will enable a smooth transition to a new legacy cleanup contract, the DOE said in a news release.

This contract is separate from the operations and management contract, which is expected to go out for bid later this year. The National Nuclear Security Administration is working on a draft request for proposals for the operations and management contract.

The legacy cleanup contract for Los Alamos National Security will now end March 31, 2018.

The total value of the six-month contract extension is about $65 million, according to the DOE.

Since I arrived in Los Alamos a few months ago, one of the groups that I have been most impressed with is the local roller derby team, the Los Alamos Derby Dames. After spending time with them at some practices and attending their home matches this season, it is clear that nobody has as much fun as they do, while also doing a lot of good for their members and the community as a whole.

The team was started in 2011, and was accepted into the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association’s Apprentice program.

While the team enjoys having success, they are more concerned with the development of their players.

According to the mission statement on the team’s website, “LADD strives to promote the empowerment of all women by providing positive athletic role models and creating a community-based sport for those of any skill level.”

The most important thing I’ve learned about roller derby is that all of the competitors are an extended family.
No matter the result of a match, they all hang out afterward and laugh.

Everyone is able to become a part of this family.

All you have to do is attend the team’s skate school, which begins with new member orientation on Oct. 10 at Mountain Elementary School.

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — New Mexico has received almost $27 million from the U.S. Energy Department as part of a settlement reached over a radiation release that forced a nearly three-year shutdown at the federal government's only underground nuclear waste repository.

State officials and the agency signed the agreement in early 2016 over dozens of permit violations stemming from the 2014 release of radiation at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad two years earlier. At the time, the total $74 million settlement was the largest ever negotiated between a state and the Energy Department.

Gov. Susana Martinez said in a statement Monday that the settlement was meant to hold the federal government accountable for mistakes made at the repository and at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where workers inappropriately packed a container of waste in which the contents reacted. The container burst after it was placed underground for permanent disposal.

Twenty-two workers at the repository were exposed, and monitors at the surface recorded low levels of radiological contamination. Officials maintained that nearby communities were not at risk.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump vowed to deliver on a major tax cut for middle-class Americans on Tuesday as the White House and congressional leaders prepared to release details on a tax overhaul proposal that would slash the corporate rate and simplify the nation's tax code.

Trump met with Republicans and Democrats from the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee at the White House, telling reporters he would be releasing a "very comprehensive, very detailed report" on Wednesday that would offer the framework for his top legislative agenda.

"We will cut taxes tremendously for the middle-class. Not just a little bit but tremendously," Trump said. He predicted jobs "will be coming back in because we have a non-competitive tax structure right now and we're going to go super competitive."

The president and congressional leaders were putting the final touches on plans for the first major overhaul to the tax system in three decades, a major Trump campaign pledge that the White House hopes will give Trump a sorely needed legislative achievement.